One Life
by spero spiro
Summary: [Look what we’ve become: chained by Fate and burning up in something we can’t have.] AxelRoxas oneshot. Companion to If You’re Gone and Your Eyes Open.


**One Life**

**Note: This is the third of the four stories that stand together, and also alone, which was begun by _If You're Gone_ and continued with _Your Eyes Open_. Like the others, this is short and to the point, and says everything I wanted to say. I'm glad.**

**Disclaimer: Please don't sue. The characters of Kingdom Hearts don't belong to me, only the way I perceive them. **

**Description: Look what we've become: chained by Fate and burning up in something we can't have. AxelRoxas oneshot. Companion to If You're Gone and Your Eyes Open.**

Axel did not believe that Roxas had completely forgotten him at first. The first day he visited him, he wondered if it was all just a silly charade. Maybe Roxas did remember. Maybe, but it was just wishful thinking to be set aside and forgotten. Things had gotten so messy between them so quickly that Axel didn't know what was up, and what was down, and how he was supposed to deal with things. He and Roxas had been much more than friends, or platonic lovers… There was a longing even beyond the one in the abyss of his non-Heart that reminded him endlessly of heated and passionate nights and days of rushed intimacy in the most awkward of places.

By the time he got the order to terminate Roxas if he didn't come back, Axel was losing patience. He had spent so much time without Roxas… Watched him go away, watched him exist in a life he didn't belong in, and now watched him get endlessly strung along by _that man_ toward a fate he, Axel, did not think that he could handle. He desperately wanted to save him… He wanted Roxas to listen. He was even willing to give up on returning to Organization XIII, if it meant he could just take Roxas and go, and finally be back with him.

Instead there were endless distractions to keep him away from Roxas, from appearances from DiZ, to completely stopping time altogether in the digital town. Axel appreciated neither of these efforts to stop him, and wanted DiZ to know that he was going to take Roxas, wellbeing of the worlds be damned. It was after the time trick that Axel decided to approach the old man about it.

He didn't need to be announced as he stepped out of the black portal of darkness, into DiZ's control room.

"Number Eight. Axel." DiZ only laughed and stared at him. "I'm almost surprised you didn't come sooner."

Axel only glared at him. "Let me take him back." He demanded, holding his chakram with a grip matched only by death. The man only laughed. "I'm not making a joke!" He hissed.

He stood up and walked toward Axel. "I can't allow that."

"What have you got against Roxas, anyway?" Desperation was almost showing through his voice.

"Nothing at all." The masked man turned and walked away from him.

"Liar." Axel accused furiously. "Otherwise you wouldn't be doing this to him… To me."

At these words, he turned around and stared directly into Axel's eyes. "I have nothing against you, nor against Roxas. Roxas is an unfortunate byproduct of Sora's Heart being willingly sacrificed to save Kairi's… Who in turn created an even more unfortunate byproduct in Naminé."

"I don't care about that!"

The laughter started again, and DiZ regarded Axel thoughtfully. "I have nothing against anyone in your organization, save for the first six members. They are the targets of my revenge. Sora is the weapon that will eradicate them and their foolish non-existence. If you wish to blame anyone for your lack of a Heart, Axel, then you should look to the same people who swear to return yours to you."

Axel was trembling violently. "I told you I don't care," He cried, the air around him heating up and crackling. "I just want Roxas."

"He will disappear into Sora shortly."

Axel knew Nobodies didn't cry, and he didn't… but he felt that if he could have, he would have in that moment, purely out of desperation and fear and frustration. "What if I don't want him to?" He demanded.

"You don't have a choice in the matter." DiZ stared thoughtfully at him. "Roxas probably remembers everything we had to make him forget by now. You're welcome to greet him and see if he's willing to return. He really ought to be headed this way now from the Library."

Axel only swallowed. "What's the catch?"

He turned away again. "Your passions consume you, Axel. Whatever you "feel" for and about Roxas is blurred with your confusion, your frustration, and your desperation for whatever you had before. Do you truly believe Xemnas will allow Roxas to return? Do you truly believe he you could pick up a new Heart by following him, after losing your own true Heart?" The man looked over the screens that displayed the status of Sora.

"Your rage consumes you like your fire, Axel. And fire burns indiscriminately."

Axel turned and left the room, no longer willing to hear what he had to say. As he walked toward the room he knew Roxas would be meeting him in, he felt an uncontrollable anger toward DiZ for taking Roxas away and putting him away were Axel couldn't find him, and then… This.

He had only wanted Roxas back…

The first few moments after Roxas came into the room, Axel felt his anger with DiZ grow stronger and stronger. The air cracked, and all of a sudden he was lashing out furiously at Roxas for not remembering… And he knew Roxas remembered, and that was killing him more, because he was still just as determined to get to the bottom of everything as he had been when he'd left. When he summoned his chakram to fight Roxas, however he didn't want to, he stared at the floor for what felt like an eternity.

_I didn't want it to come to this…_ He thought.

"_Fire burns indiscriminately…"_ Axel hated how true the words were, and he fought Roxas when he just wanted to make him see that it was all for him… Everything.

_Look what we've become: chained by Fate and burning up in something we can't have._

And as he faded toward the darkness that grew around him, he told Roxas he wanted to see him in the next life, and laughed because Roxas had a next life, and he probably didn't. He grasped at one last look at Roxas before giving into the darkness and swore right then that he could be as strong as Roxas and get away from the Organization.

And if he couldn't have another life after this one, then he'd just have to make the most of this one. With or without Roxas… it would be _for_ him.

**End**


End file.
